


100% Despair

by weebwrites



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, モブサイコ100 | Mob Psycho 100
Genre: Attempted Murder, Character Death, Gen, I will devour your entire nervous system, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Killing Game AU, Major Character Injury, Memory Loss, Murder, Murder Mystery, Parent-Child Relationship, Sibling Love, anime onlys might be a bit confused by some aspects but there are overall no overt spoilers, had to separate that into 2 tags bc ao3 is dumb, if you interpret mob and ritsu's relationship as anything other than platonic, the only reason this is a crossover is because the killing game plot is the same, will add more tags as the story progresses, you don't need to know anything about danganronpa to understand this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-01-31 15:00:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18593656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weebwrites/pseuds/weebwrites
Summary: "Now, why are you all here and how do you escape? Firstly, you are gathered here to play a game. You can escaping by participating in this game.What is the game you will all be playing? It's simple, really.You all will be participating in a Killing Game."Shigeo could only hope he had heard that wrong.(A Danganronpa crossover AU. You don't have to know anything about Danganronpa to understand this fic.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not, like, good at determining what a spoiler is and what isn't a spoiler but other than not knowing who takenaka is I think this is safe for anime onlys.  
> There also aren't any danganronpa spoilers either. This won't follow the same format as one of the danganronpa games either the only reason it's tagged is because this is a killing game. All of the killers n victims and roles in the story n all that jazz is completely original to this fic

Shigeo woke up to the feeling of frigidity.

His first response was to simply move to lay on his side and wrap the blanket around himself closer. He was too tired to tamper with the air conditioning, and his back was beginning to feel sore anyways.

When Shigeo reached down to try and grab his blanket, his hands were reaching out for nothing.

Slowly, he opened his eyes to try and help him find where exactly he had kicked his blanket off to.

He wasn't in his room.

This woke him up immediately.

Slowly pressing him arms behind his back to push himself up from his position on the floor, Shigeo looked around the unfamiliar room he found himself in.

Excluding the cold temperature in the air, the first thing he noticed was that he was lying on the floor of a classroom.

His hands were pressed up against a cold, hard floor. To his right were several desks lined up in exact, neat rows with their respective chairs stacked on top of them upside-down. It looked like how classrooms would appear when the school day was over.

To his left was an empty chalkboard behind a teacher's desk. There wasn't any chalk to be found.

Shigeo slowly stood all the way up from his position on the floor. Behind the row of desks were bookshelves lined up against the wall.

Overall, it simply looked like a normal classroom.

How did I get here…?

Shigeo, still with his feet planted in the same spot on the floor, began ransacking his memories for any information that would explain his current situation.

It was a weekend… a relatively normal weekend at that. He didn't remember much from the previous day. All he remembers clearly enough was spending time with-

"Nii-san!?"

his little brother, Ritsu, who was now standing in the doorway of the classroom.

-

After Ritsu's constant worrying and his own insistence that he's fine, Shigeo had learned that Ritsu had also just woke up in the same position he found himself in not too long ago. The two brothers had eventually decided that they wouldn’t get any answers by sitting on the cold, wooden floor of the dusty classroom all day and began searching for an exit.

Immediately after stepping foot outside the classroom do they find what should've been the first hint that getting out wouldn't be as easy as they hoped.

A giant slab of metal was found screwed into the wall. It extended all the way across the hall. He doesn't know why, but Shigeo's mind immediately jumped to ‘window’ when he saw it.

“Quite an interesting design choice.”

“It's blocking something.” Shigeo turned to his brother, expression blank. “I think this is where a huge window is supposed to be.”

Ritsu, ignoring his brother's obliviousness, moved to the large metal plate on the wall and began to fiddle with the screws in place. His brow furrowed in frustration as he tried to twist them.

“They won't budge. They're big screws but whoever built this place sealed them on tight.”

Before Shigeo could process this information, a third voice from his left interrupted his thoughts.

“Already tried that. The screws feel like they're glued onto it. Absolutely nothing you do can get them to move.”

A boy slightly shorter than him with bright blue eyes and red hair pointed upwards, a look that immediately reminded Shigeo of fire before thinking about how much hair gel the boy needed to get his hair to stay like that.

“And who's telling me this?” Ritsu's calm demeanor instantly shifted to one of suspicion.

The redhead's demeanor shifted as well, his former indifferent and slightly serious look was replaced in favor a large, goofy smile and exaggerated pose.

“Well~” he started with, “if you really wanna know, then I guess-”

“Enough with the dramatics and just answer the question already.”

The boy's smile wavered a bit, but he quickly regains his confident composure.

“My name is Suzuki Shou, but I guess you all probably know me better as the Ultimate Artist.” The boy, now named Suzuki, waved an expectant smile towards the two brothers.

Ultimate… Artist…  
Ultimate…?

“Ultimate?” Ritsu mirrored his own thoughts verbally.

Suzuki enthusiastically nodded his head up and down at the question, his eyes closed, smile wide and arms crossed around his chest. He looked like he was expecting some kind of reaction.

Ritsu placed his hand under his chin, lost in thought.

Shigeo had assumed that wasn't the reaction Suzuki was looking for when he dropped his arms and gave the brothers a disappointed look.

“That's it? You're not, like, surprised?”

“Not really.”

“Really? Not even a little bit.”

Ritsu ignored him.

Suzuki's face curled into a childish pout. He turned his attention to both the brothers repeatedly, as if still looking for some kind of reaction.

Shigeo realized he had yet to introduce himself.

“Oh, right. Uhm… My name is Kageyama Shigeo. This-” he pointed to his brother, still solving a puzzle in his head, “-is my younger brother, Ritsu.”

“And the two of you aren't Ultimates, right?” Suzuki asked him. Or maybe he was asking both of them, Shigeo was never the best at deciphering what other people mean. “You're just a couple of regular ol’ regulars?”

Shigeo still wasn't entirely sure what Suzuki had meant by 'Ultimate,’ so he had assumed that meant he wasn't one. It seemed like a big title to have with the way Suzuki was expecting some kind of reaction from the two of them, and Shigeo had figured that if he had such a big title he would remember it. But before he could answer Suzuki's question, Ritsu spoke up behind him.

“Nope. We have Ultimate talents as well.”

We do!?

“Huh. Well that explains your reaction, I guess.” Suzuki still looked disappointed. “So, what are you guys?”

Shigeo kept silent and let Ritsu answer for him.

“I'm the Ultimate Student Council,” Ritsu said with a blank look on his. Shigeo almost would have congratulated him for getting such a title before Suzuki interrupted.

“Student council? What a lame talent.” When Suzuki's blue eyes turned to meet his own, Shigeo felt himself tense up.

“What about you? You look pretty plain for someone with an Ultimate talent.”

Shigeo felt sweat beading down his neck. Breaking eye contact with Suzuki, he looked down at his feet and fiddled with his thumbs.

Ritsu, thankfully, noticed Shigeo's discomfort and began to answer for him.

“My brother is the…” Ritsu trailed off, as if he had suddenly realized something. His face curled in confusion as he looked back at Shigeo like his talent is written on his face.

“He's the…”

Shigeo stared back expectantly.

Ritsu, with a nervous look on his face, turned to meet Shigeo's eyes.

“Sorry, nii-san, could you tell me what your talent is again…?”

Shigeo felt himself panic again.

“You don't remember your own brother's talent? That's cruel, Ritsu.”

Ritsu gave Suzuki a scowl. “Since when were we on a first name basis?”

“Since now!”

Shigeo, after a brief moment of deliberation, finally decided to come out with the truth about his situation.

“I don't remember it either.”

He immediately gains the undivided attention of both Suzuki and Ritsu at once after his statement.

“You don't remember either!?”

“Nii-san… you don't remember?”

Shigeo ducked his head down and looked away from the incredulous glares he was getting. He felt his nervousness spike and his chest felt heavy.

Ritsu's expression immediately turned into one of worry as he approached his brother. Suzuki was still staring at him as Ritsu placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“That's alright. If you can't remember then there's really nothing we can do about it.”

Suzuki switched gears as well. “Uhh, y-yeah, right! Your memory will probably come back after a while. I forget my ultimate all the time…” Shigeo didn't really believe him, but it felt comforting nonetheless.

“Uh… So anyways…” Suzuki started. “The metal plates here are kind of a lost cause.”

Oh, right, the metal plates.

Shigeo had almost forgotten about them while stuck in his own confusion.

Turning his head and forgetting the anxiety that still lingered, he tried his own hand with the screw.

Nothing.

“If you're trying to look for a way out, I noticed a few doors were locked around here and a couple of exists were barricaded. I haven't exactly explored the entire building yet, though.”

Ritsu stared down at the floor. A habit of his when he's thinking hard about something.

“I'll follow you guys where I haven't looked yet. That way you two won't have to needlessly explore this entire building.”

Before Ritsu could object, the sudden sound of static interrupted any continuation of the previous conversation. The noise sounded like it came from the ceiling. Only shortly after this observation did Shigeo find speakers on the walls.

Through these speakers, a muffled voice began speaking. It sounded like whoever was talking had used some kind of tool to make themself sound unrecognizable.

“Greetings to all the Ultimates gathered here.”

All the ultimates?

“Please gather at the first floor's gymnasium. Once all participants are gathered further instructions and explanations will be given.”

Participants…? Instructions?

“What the hell's that supposed to mean?” Suzuki said mostly to himself.

“Well,” Ritsu began. “The announcer said 'to all the ultimates.’ I'm assuming there are more of us gathered here.”

“More Ultimates?”

“I would assume so.”

Suzuki let out a soft hum in acknowledgement. “We all gotta meet in the gym downstairs, huh.”

Downstairs? So that meant they were on the second floor.

“That's what they said.”

“Alrighty.” Suzuki spun around on his heel and began walking the opposite way in which he came to meet the brothers. After taking a few steps forward he turned back to look at the two of them.

“What are you two waiting back there for? 'Meet at the gym,’ remember?”

Ah. Right. Of course.

-

While following Suzuki's lead down the stairways and through the halls, Shigeo paid more focus on his situation than remembering the route in which Suzuki was taking them. For some reason, Shigeo felt like he'd know the route anyways.

Shigeo tried to think of his Ultimate talent at first. But to do that requires that Shigeo remembers what 'Ultimate talent’ even means in the first place, which he doesn't. So he tries to remember what that meant.

Before he could think about it any further, he heard the sound of a creaky door opening in front of him. He picked his head up from where it was previously dropped on his shoulders and looked inside of what presumably had been the gymnasium.

Several different people were waiting inside. All of which immediately turned their heads to the direction Shigeo and the other two boys occupied.

Shigeo felt the weight in his chest again.

All of these people had Ultimate talents. All of these people knew what their Ultimate talents were. All these people probably remembered what that phrase even meant.

Shigeo felt like an outcast.

“That makes fifteen of us,” someone in the crowd spoke up. He had black hair held up in a pompedour style.

“Do you think that's all of us?” The second to speak up was a girl with sparkling blue eyes and shoulder length silky hair. Shigeo thought she looked pretty.

“Fifteen sounds like a good number,” someone else pitched in. He was one of the few adults present in the room, and was wearing a light grey business suit with a pink tie.

“Looks like you were right,” Shigeo heard Suzuki whisper to his brother. Hesitantly, the three made their way to join the rest of the crowd.

“I would ask who you all are,” Suzuki started, “but I know I'm just gonna forget all of your names anyway. No way I can handle fifteen names thrown at me at once.”

“Technically fourteen,” Ritsu corrected. “Since fifteen includes yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever Mr. Student Council.”

Ritsu flashed Suzuki an annoyed look before Shigeo decided to speak up.

“Uhm… Well I'm Kageyama Shigeo, and my brother's name is Ritsu.”

“Hold on, did you say brother?”

Shigeo turned to look at whoever spoke up. His eyes landed on a girl with short, ginger hair and a camera around her neck.

“Yes, I did. Ritsu is my little brother.”

“Little brother?” Suzuki interrupted. “You didn't tell me that! Isn't the older brother supposed to be taller?”

The girl ignored Suzuki's comment and made her way towards the two brothers.

“I'm Mezato Ichi, and my talent is the Ultimate Journalist.”

“Oh. Nice to meet you, Mezato-san.”

“Right. A pleasure. Do the two of you know anything about this place or remember anything about how you ended up here?”

“I don't remember anything. Do you, Ritsu?”

“Not a thing.”

Mezato placed her hand over her mouth. She looked like she was thinking really hard about something.

“This is interesting. You two are the only ones here who aren't strangers.”

They were the only ones? Shigeo guesses that's why Mezato was so interested in the two of them.

Before he could dwell on it any further, the speakers began working again.

“Greetings to every single one of you listening, and thank you for following my directions.

For now, you all may refer me as simply The Ringleader. If you wish to know my real name, you must find out yourself.

As far as explanations go, I'm certain you all have your fair share of questions. Lucky for you, I have a fair share of answers.

There are fifteen of you gathered here in total. You all have one thing in common. You're all Ultimates.

I was the one who gathered you all here today. As I'm sure many of you have noticed, you all have no memory of how you got here or even what you were doing prior to arriving at this place. This is because I erased your memories of these events. The only way you'll be able to get these memories back is by escaping.

As for where we are right now, the current building you're all collectively trapped in is known as Salt Middle School. As for where you are on the map is information you're not allowed to know. In case you haven't already noticed, all of the windows and exists have been blocked off using thick, metal plates. It's impossible to get these plates off, so don't bother trying. Also, I've taken away all of your phones and other electronics to help you communicate with the outside world.

Now, why are you all here and how do you escape? Firstly, you are gathered here to play a game. You can escaping by participating in this game.

What is the game you will all be playing? It's simple, really.

You all will be participating in a Killing Game.

There are two ways to escape the Killing Game.

The first way to escape is by killing someone in this room and getting away with it. Once three people have found a dead body, I will return with an automated Body Discovery Announcement. In the Body Discovery Announcement, I will reveal the location of the body.

After the Body Discovery Announcement has played, a timer will begin. The surviving members of the Killing Game will be given approximately 35 minutes to search around the school for clues and figure out who the murderer, or Blackened, is.

Once 35 minutes are up, the surviving members must all meet up at the Trial Grounds, where each member participates in a Class Trial. During a Class Trial, all members are given an unlimited amount of time to discuss with one another who they believe is the Blackened. Once the discussion is over, each member will vote for who they believe to be the killer.

If whoever gets the popular vote turns out to be the Blackened, they alone will be executed. If whoever gets the popular is innocent, or Spotless, every besides the Blackened will be executed and the killer will be able to leave the school.

The killing game will only stop once at most only two people are left alive. These two people will then be able to leave. This is the only other way to escape.

On the third floor of the building lies the dormitories. Each one of you has been assigned a room in the dorms. Sleeping anywhere other than the dorms is against the rules. Anyone who breaks the rules will be executed.

There are certain rooms that are off limits and will only open after a killing has taken place. Do not force these doors open. If you're allowed to enter a room, the door should open easily. Entering a locked door room is against the rules.

Finally, only two people can be killed by any one killer. Any more is against the rules. If two different killers are present before a class trial, than only the first killer will be able to escape and only the first killer will be executed if voted for correctly. The second killer is no different than a Spotless in that situation.

Now then, I wish you all the best of luck.”

Click.

…

The announcer cut off. Nothing could be heard in the room other than the deafening silence of every Ultimate in the room.

They were stuck. Frozen in place, staring up at the speaker with every emotion shown on their face.

Shigeo felt a hand slowly grab at him arm and squeeze. He shuffled closer to his brother, holding onto his hoodie sleeve with a death grip.

Shigeo wasn't sure whether he preferred his earlier confusion of the situation to the horrifying knowledge he now possesses.

They were trapped.

And now the only way out is to kill each other.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh. in like 2 and a half weeks school is boutta be out for me so you can maaayyyybe expect faster updates after that?? either way im trying my best :')  
> I wanted this chapter to be longer but I just said fuck it 5k words is enough.

Shigeo was almost certain he was dreaming.

Nothing about the situation made any kind of sense. Suddenly thrust into some random building, having words with no clear meaning thrown at him all at once, and now a voice playing on the speaker told him the only way to get out is to kill another person.

It all just sounded ridiculous. Like nonsense. It felt like he was in some kind of fantasy.

The arm wrapped around his own squeezed just a little bit tighter. Shigeo knew, deep down, that this was all too real.

The silence was interrupted by a voice.

“Are you all just gonna stand there or what?”

Everyone immediately directed their attention to the speaker. She was a girl, not much older than Shigeo himself, with bright blue eyes and short purple hair.

When she didn't get a response from anyone, she walked up to the front of the gymnasium and stared back at everyone. It looked like she was ready to give some kind of speech. Shigeo thought it was cool how she wasn't nervous at all the glares people were sending her.

“My name is Asagiri Minori. I'm the Ultimate Heiress, and seemingly the only one here who isn't willing to just sit on my ass all day waiting for someone to do something.”

“I don't suppose you have, like, a plan or anything, do you?” Someone else from the group spoke up, although Shigeo couldn't tell who.

“My plan is to find whoever the hell this “ringleader” is and force him to let us out himself!”

“That's just ridiculous. We don't know who the ringleader is, what they look like, what they sound like, or even what gender they are. How do you suppose we'll be able to track down someone with as little information as that?”

Asagiri turned her full attention to the boy speaking. When Shigeo turned his head, he found a boy the same age as him with blue eyes (something a lot of people here happened to have, he noticed) and blonde hair. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest, staring back at Asagiri with an unimpressed look on his face. The most noticeable thing on him was the pink turtleneck sweater he was wearing. Shigeo thought it looked pretty, albeit it being an obnoxiously bright shade.

“We just have to look around. The ringleader has to be monitoring us from somewhere, right? And there's no way this entire building doesn't hold a single clue that could tell us where we are and how we got here. Either way, I don't wanna stand in the gym and start moping for the rest of my life,” Asagiri huffed.

The blonde boy rolled her eyes at her, but didn't object to anything she was saying, so Asagiri counted that as a victory in her part.

“I have to agree with you.” The voice came from the very back of the crowd, where an incredibly buff man was standing in a school gym uniform. “We haven't properly explored the building, yet. There might be something we missed that could lead us to the ringleader, and it's a better option than what the ringleader wants us to do to get out of here.”

“I guess she does have kind of a point,” said the boy with the pompadour hair. “Besides, if there's a chance I might die here I'd rather go out with a fight, y'know? And with this-” he slapped the muscular man's shoulder. “-heap of muscle on our side, I say we have a pretty good fighting chance.”

“Muscles shouldn't be used for violence, but we might not have any other choice here,” he simply replied.

Asagiri grinned. “Well, look at that. I already have two people helping me!” She put on an innocent smile and stared back at everyone. “Anyone else feel like joining the 'defeat the ringleader’ club?”

“Hold on a moment,” said the man with the grey business suit. “Haven't we all kinda missed a step here?”

“Missed a step?” A girl with orange hair curling at the ends and a pink sweater asked. “What did we miss?”

The man turned to face everyone in the crowd. “None of us have any idea who we all are. Shouldn't we, I don't know, at least let us know what each other's names are?”

That's right. Shigeo hardly knew anyone in the room with him right now. No one had bothered to share their names yet.

“I'll start the chain of introductions.” The man said with a wave of hand gestures moving so fast Shigeo felt his head spin trying to keep up with them. “I'm Reigen Arataka! The 21st Century's Greatest Psychic!”

“I'm sorry, the 21st century's greatest what?”

“No need to get all jealous,” the man boasted.

“Ooh, ooh, me next!” The girl with the pink sweater jumped up and down excitedly with her hand raised. “I'm Kurosaki Rei! The Ultimate Clairvoyant!” The girl, Shigeo now knew as Kurosaki, sported a large grin on her face.

“I guess we should introduce ourselves too,” said the pompadour boy. “I'm Onigawara Tenga, and this is…?"

“Gouda Musashi. The Ultimate Body Builder.”

Suzuki raised his hand up with an excited grin on his face as well. “I'm Suzuki Shou, and you all can call me the Ultimate Artist!”

Asagiri pointed her finger at the second adult in the room. A man with curly hair and subtle stubble growing out of his chin, holding a closed umbrella close to his chest.

“You next.”

“H-huh?” The man looked up from his umbrella at Asagiri.

“What's your name?”

“Serizawa… Serizawa Katsuya…”

“Good! We might as well get the quiet ones to start talking before they ditch us!" Asagiri shifted her focus onto the blonde boy that she was arguing with earlier. “And what's your name?”

The boy looked up at her, with the same unimpressed look on his face. There was a beat of silence before he spoke up.

“...Hanazawa Teruki.”

“Good!” Asagiri repeated. She exaggeratedly looked around the crowd with her hand placed on her chin. Shigeo wasn't sure whether or not she was trying to be playful or cute.

"You next!" She suddenly shouted while pointing at a boy with earbuds in and a gakuran.

“Takenaka Momozou.”

"Right!"

Shigeo was relieved that not a lot of people were revealing their Ultimate talents. He didn't want to have to explain to everyone that he had forgotten his own talent.

“You two with the black hair holding each other's arms! What are your names?”

Shigeo's attention was suddenly focused onto Asagiri, pointing a finger at him and Ritsu. He realized the two had yet to let go of each other since the announcement.

Feeling his nervousness creep up on him, Ritsu turned to Asagiri with an annoyed look on his face. “Didn't we already introduce ourselves? I'm Kageyama Ritsu, and this is my brother Shigeo.”

Shigeo made a mental note to thank Ritsu for answering for him.

“You probably did and I just wasn't paying attention,” Asagiri plainly replied. "Anyone else wanna introduce themselves?"

"I guess I'll go," a girl with short, light brown hair spoke up. "You all can just call me Emi. I'm the Ultimate Novelist."

"And speaking of ultimates!" A girl with shoulder length black hair and an alien shirt cut in. "I'm the Ultimate Astrologist! Kurata Tome! But you can all just call me Tome, if you want."

"Guess I'm last in line," the girl with sparkling blue eyes said. "Takane Tsubomi. Ultimate Idol."

“Alright, now that that's taken care of, I'm going to explore the rest of this building. Whoever wants to come with me to find the ringleader, go right ahead.” Asagiri turned heel and walked out the doorway with a skip in her step, with Gouda, Onigawara, and Mezato immediately following her lead. Eventually, Emi and Takane moved to follow them.

Suzuki began walking towards the exit with Asagiri as well before Ritsu pulled on his jacket sleeve. “Suzuki!? You can't seriously be thinking about following her lead!”

“What can I say?” Suzuki simply responded. “Maybe I'm just a little curious?” Suzuki pulled his sleeve away from Ritsu's grip and continued his walk to the doorway with Asagiri. After her group eventually walked down the hallways long enough for no one else to be able to follow them at a regular pace, Hanazawa got up and walked out the doorway as well, followed by everyone else in the room.

Ritsu loosened his grip on Shigeo's sleeve and let out a tired sigh. “Do you want to check out the dorms?”

Shigeo simply nodded.

-

Just like the announcement had said, the dormitories were found on the third floor. Shigeo was silently hoping that once they got to the third floor they wouldn't be there, to give himself some kind of excuse to not believe the announcement was telling the truth.

The entire third floor stretched out into one, long hallway with the rooms lined up across each other. Each room's door had the owner's name nailed onto it. Shigeo found his own name in the very middle of the hall. He noticed the door right next to his was labeled “Ritsu.”

“It looks like our rooms are right next to each other.”

Shigeo simply let out a soft hum to let Ritsu know he heard him.

Shigeo only stood there, staring up at his nameplate. He pressed his hand onto the surface of the door. It felt cold. He didn't want to walk inside.

Ritsu turned to him after noticing his hesitation. “Hey, Nii-san,” he started. Shigeo pulled his hand away from the door and turned to meet Ritsu's gaze.

“I want to try something. Do you think you can stand in your room for a bit?”

Shigeo didn't want to enter the room, but agreed to Ritsu's request regardless.

Shigeo slowly opened the door and entered his room, closing it behind him. Ritsu had only asked him to stay in his room, so he wasn't really sure what he should be doing now. He decided he might as well use this time to get familiar with the layout of his room. He's gonna be staying there for quite a while.

Overall, the layout of the room was rather plain looking. There were a few empty shelves here and there, a bed in the right corner of the room next to a small table with a lamp, a closet in the left corner of the room and another doorway right next to it. 

Opening the closet revealed a random assortment of plain looking outfits. Not anything Shigeo owned, but still looked like the kind of thing he would. Opening the door next to his closet led to a small bathroom.

The moment Shigeo closed the closet door was the moment he heard his front door opening. Quickly turning around, he saw Ritsu walking inside with an expression he couldn't read.

“Hey, Ritsu. Did you do what you were trying to do?”

Ritsu's expression shifted slightly. “Yeah, I did.” Ritsu paused.

“Nii-san… Did you hear me from the other room?”

Shigeo simply shook his head. He wasn't sure what Ritsu was trying to do, but he remembers his room was in total silence.

Ritsu's expression changes into one that Shigeo can now recognize as his Thinking Face. He gazes down at the floor, his eyebrows making small movements as a million thoughts, Shigeo assumes, go running through his head.

“I guess I was right,” he finally says out loud. Shigeo makes a small humming noise, urging him to continue.

“These rooms must be soundproof. When I walked into my room, I tried making as loud of a noise as I could, but you didn't hear anything from the other room.”

Shigeo takes a second to process what Ritsu was saying before realizing how he's probably been staring for too long and quickly nods in agreement. He doesn't like the implications that come with “soundproof rooms.”

Ritsu, taking his brother's lack of a verbal response as a sign that he doesn't want to talk anymore, moves behind him to open the closet door and look inside. He later moves to the bathroom door, and eventually he's just taking a look around the room the same way Shigeo did just a moment before.

After a bit of checking of the shelves on the walls, running his finger off of the top and collecting dust on his hand, does Ritsu finally announce his completion by letting his body fall limp onto the bed in the corner. Shigeo, feeling awkward with just standing by the closet the entire time, moves to sit by Ritsu on the bed.

Moments pass. 

The two brothers simply sit and stare down at their own feet in silence.

“I noticed something about the announcement,” Ritsu broke the silence. Shigeo let out another soft hum, cueing him to continue.

“They only specified that we had to sleep in the dorms themselves. The announcer never once mentioned that we had to sleep in our own rooms. They never even told us that we had our own assigned rooms.”

Ritsu turned around, tucked himself into the corner of the bed and the wall, and simply let his eyes close.

Shigeo looked down at his brother, before eventually moving to lay down directly next to him. Shigeo silently moved the blanket over the top of them. None of them said it, but the knowledge of soundproof rooms made the two of them a lot less eager to sleep in different rooms.

Shigeo was the one to break the silence this time.

“Hey, Ritsu?”

His brother had let out a soft hum this time.

“...We'll get out of here, right?”

A silence followed.

Before Shigeo could feel the weight in his chest again, Ritsu turned around to face Shigeo directly, his face sporting a look of confidence and determination.

“I promise that no matter what happens, we'll find a way to leave this place together.” Shigeo felt Ritsu grab his hand underneath the blanket. "We'll find a way. Somehow."

Shigeo let his shoulders drop just a bit, releasing some tension in his body. Ritsu turned around so that his back was facing Shigeo's again, and he let out a loud yawn.

“Goodnight, Nii-san."

Shigeo hummed, and slowly felt himself shift into unconsciousness as well. Only now had he realized how tired he really was.

-

Shigeo woke up to the sound of pen scratching on paper. He recalled how Ritsu liked to write in his diary.

Shigeo moved under the covers to try and get more comfortable, before eventually deciding he's not going to be able to get back to sleep and opened his eyes.

He was greeted to the sight of the dormitory he had checked out with Ritsu before he fell asleep, the memories of the announcement quickly come flooding back.

“Good morning, Nii-san.”

Turning to his right, he saw Ritsu with a pen in his hand, paused above a relatively normal looking notebook.

Shigeo rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he sat up from the bed. “What time is it…?”

“It’s almost 07:30. The announcement had actually played pretty late at night. Not that we could tell, since there were no windows.”

Shigeo softly hummed.

Ritsu closed his notebook and set it off to the side before turning his body towards Shigeo's.

“Earlier when you were still asleep, Reigen-san came to tell us that everyone had planned to meet up in the cafeteria first thing in the morning.”

Shigeo moved to meet his brother's face rather than stare at his lap.

“Everyone should be headed there in a bit. You should probably brush your hair at the very least.” Shigeo instinctively moved his hand up to his head to find his hair sticking up in all different directions. He wondered if his hair resembled Ritsu's like this.

Shigeo noticed now that Ritsu wasn't wearing the same clothes as before. He had abandoned his yellow hoodie for a simple, green, long sleeved shirt.

After a moment of staring, Shigeo quickly moved out of bed and stepped into the bathroom to get ready.

-

After getting to the cafeteria, Shigeo quickly noticed that he and his brother were not the first to arrive. In fact, it looked like they were the last.

“And now the Kageyamas arrived. That means all of us are here now.” The voice sounded like it belonged to Asagiri.

Everyone was gathered around a large table right in the middle of the room. All their eyes were on him and Ritsu. He could feel his anxiety rise again.

“What do we do now? Was it necessary to wait for everyone to show up before we eat?” The boy in the gakuran -- Takenaka, Shigeo remembered -- spoke up.

“We weren't waiting to eat together, we're gonna talk about what we're going to do next!” The girl with the alien shirt, Tome, shouts next to the boy. “We need some kind of plan to get out of here!”

“But,” Takane spoke up. “Don't we already kind of have a plan? Is this meeting really necessary?”

“No, of course it's not.” Asagiri spoke up once more. “Other than to just fill our own schedules, there's really no meaning for meeting up like this.”

The blonde boy, Hanazawa, spoke up. “We're meeting like this because your “plan” is full of shit. We know absolutely nothing about the ringleader, about where we are, and why specifically we were taken. We hardly know anything about each other, and you think a plan as vague as 'find the ringleader’ will work?”

“Well I'm sorry, but do you have any better ideas? It's the only chance we have of escaping that doesn't involve getting nearly all of us killed! Unless, you're planning a murder or something?”

Hanazawa scoffed, but didn't say much else.

“He… Does have a point,” Shigeo heard Ritsu comment next to him. He was being quiet, but it seemed like Asagiri heard him anyways.

“Asagiri-san has a point too,” Musashi spoke up. “As of right now, this is the only plan we have that involves no one getting killed.”

“I honestly don't get why you all are so opposed to this. I mean, there's no harm in trying, right? It almost sounds like you all want someone to die,” Minori pitched in bluntly.

“I think he just hates Minori,” Suzuki said. “Which is fair.”

“I'm sorry, what's fair?”

Suzuki sporting a large grin on his face raised his hands as if to surrender. Asagiri didn't press him any further.

No one added on anything after that, although it was obvious that not everyone in the room was in agreement.

Shigeo wasn't sure what it was, but something about Asagiri's plan just didn't feel right to him. For some reason he couldn't understand, he just didn't trust it. It made him feel uneasy.

“Hey, how about we all start eating now… I'm sure we're all hungry.” Kurosaki broke the silence.

The tension in the room was lifted almost immediately.

“Hey, Mr. President and the brother!” Shigeo heard Suzuki's voice shout from the table. He turned to look at him and found him excitedly waving his arm trying to get their attention. “I saved you two some seats here!”

Ritsu didn't bother to hide the grimace on his face, but followed Shigeo over to the empty seats regardless.

“Why did you bother saving these for us, Suzuki-kun?”

“Because I felt like it. Call me Shou.”

“Maybe if you stop calling me ‘Mr. President’, I'll consider it.”

“No promises!”

Shigeo felt some of the tension leave his body as he watched Suzuki and his brother bicker back and forth.

“Oh, by the way, Ritsu's brother.” Shigeo perked up at Suzuki addressing him.

“I wanna be able to call you something other than just 'Ritsu's brother,’ but you both share the same last name, so that's not an option either. Do you have, like, a nickname or something? Or should I just call you Shigeo?”

Shigeo thought about it for a moment. While it would feel weird to have Suzuki call him by his first name, it also made sense why he wouldn't be able to call him Kageyama. Before he could say anything, a thought suddenly flooded his mind.

“Mob.”

Ritsu lifted an eyebrow at him.

“Mob…?” Suzuki was glaring right through him.

“A-ah, that's my nickname. Mob. I think…?”

Suzuki frowned at him. “Is it another memory thing?” He nodded. “That's okay. At least I have something to call you now.”

Shigeo nodded again in response.

"So, what are we gonna be doing after this?"

Ritsu turned to face Suzuki. "What do you mean 'we'? Who invited you?"

"I did!"

"Right, of course you did." Suzuki's insistence on following the two of them around had seemed to have already become somewhat of a normal occurrence. "Me and nii-san never got a chance to look around the building and get familiar with the layout. We were planning on taking a look around."

"Ooh, then you should take me with you! I already explored this place last night with Minori and her little group of minions. I could show you two around!"

Ritsu, while not necessarily looking pleased by the suggestion, didn't voice any complaints.

"I like that idea," Shigeo spoke up.

Suzuki threw his fist up in the air, as if to celebrate some kind of victory. At least, it's what it looked like he was doing. Shigeo didn't see how getting his approval would be a victory for Suzuki. He probably would've tagged along anyways.

The rest of the morning spent in the cafeteria was uneventful.

-

"Mostly all of the doors in this place just lead to empty, boring classrooms," Suzuki explained as he dragged the two down the hallway with him.

Suzuki had a surprisingly good memory and sense of direction that showed itself when he decided to show the two brothers around the school. Ritsu had been reluctant to let Suzuki drag the two of them along, assuming he would just mindlessly follow whatever unfamiliar path he deemed most interesting and make stuff up as he went along. Contrary to his assumption, he had actually showed the two around and made his way through the twisted hallways effortlessly.

"The, uh, science lab? I think? Is right over there," Suzuki points to the end of the hallway. "I haven't actually checked it out yet, I just remember looking in through the door's window and seeing beakers and stuff."

Shigeo perked up. "Do you think we should look inside?"

Suzuki looked up at the ceiling in thought. Shigeo thought it was cool how he did the opposite of what Ritsu does when he's thinking about something, before realizing he still doesn't know Suzuki enough to be able to tell what his mannerisms mean and could very well have been doing something completely different.

"I think that's an absolutely fantastic idea, Mob." Suzuki said matter-of-factly. "I'm sure there are plenty of things in that room just waiting for me to break." Shigeo decided not to point out how that would be a bad thing.

"You are not breaking anything here."

"I dunno, my hands have a mind of their own." Before Ritsu could give another rebuttal, Suzuki was running off to the entrance of the lab.

"H-hey! Don't you dare break anything!" Ritsu called as he ran after him. Shigeo began chasing after them too, which reminded him about how non-athletic he was compared to them.

He was leaning against the door of the classroom trying to catch his breath before hearing the loud sound of clattering on the floor, like when someone drops a box full of coloring pencils on accident.

"Whoops."

Shigeo looked up to find a bunch of small, white bottles scattered everywhere from where Suzuki was standing.

"Well, at least nothing is broken." Ritsu sighed as he bent down to pick up the bottles. His hand abruptly stopped before turning the bottle around in his hand and reading the front label.

Suzuki, noticing his interest in the bottle's label, crouched down and leaned over Ritsu's shoulder to see the bottle himself. His eyes squinted and his brows furrowed in confusion.

"What the hell is that? Some kind of, like, chemical makeup or something?"

Shigeo, now taking interest as well, moved toward the two boys and carefully moving his feet around the many bottles splayed out on the floor.

Shigeo crouched down on the opposite side of Suzuki relative to Ritsu's position on the floor. Ritsu moved his eyes back to the bottle once Shigeo sat on his knees next to him. He was probably waiting for Shigeo before answering Suzuki's question.

"CHCl3. It's the chemical formula for chloroform."

Suzuki's eyebrows raised. "Now that I know. Do all chemistry labs at public schools just carry chloroform around?"

Ritsu rolled his eyes. "Of course not. Take a look at some of the other bottles here."

Suzuki and Shigeo both picked up a bottle from the floor and read their labels. Suzuki read his out loud, probably hoping for Ritsu to be able to tell him what the formula means.

"Damn, this one's long. Hey, Ritsu, what's…" he trailed off, moving the bottle closer to himself. "Oh, it has the name underneath it. Boh… tooley..."

Ritsu takes the bottle from his hands and reads the label. "This is botulinum toxin. And this-" Ritsu reaches over to grab the bottle Shigeo was holding. "-is tetrodotoxin."

Ritsu looked down at all the bottle spread out on the floor.

"These are all poisons."

Shigeo looked down at the mess Suzuki had made. The words didn't quite process yet. Shigeo had been actively trying not to think about what that fact would imply. He was still trying to push the whole situation into the back of his mind.

Without saying anything, Shigeo simply stood up from his position on the floor. Ritsu and Suzuki immediately turned their attention towards him.

"I don't feel like looking around anymore," He said simply.

Suzuki was the first to get up with him.

"Yeah, me too. This whole poison thing just killed my mood." Suzuki stretched. "Man, school must be crazy if teachers just leave this kind of stuff lying around."

"Poison isn't exactly a normal thing for schools to be having on hand, you know." Ritsu pitched in. "Have you ever been to school?"

"I know that was probably sarcastic, but I'll have you know I've been homeschooled for most of my life."

The three boys eventually made their way out of the science lab. No one bothered to pick up the mess Suzuki had made, and no one bothered to mention what they had found.

Shigeo quickly noticed after a bit of mindless walking that him and Ritsu were still following Suzuki down the hallways, and it didn't seem like he was taking them to the dorms upstairs.

"Uhm, Suzuki-san?"

"You can call me Shou, y'know."

Shigeo perks up. "Oh, right. Su- I mean- Shou-san." He felt bad enough for using Suzuki's first name so quickly into meeting him, he couldn't bring himself to drop the honorific. "Where are we going?"

There was a beat of silence before Suzuki answered.

"Just some place where we can rot our brains for a while."

Shigeo decided not to say anything else the rest of the walk there.

-

As it turns out, there was some kind of gaming room in the school that Suzuki had discovered the day before, but didn't have the time to explore. It was filled with card games, board games, and even video games. Why a school would implement such a thing was something Shigeo couldn't quite wrap his head around, but was grateful for the distraction nonetheless.

When Suzuki had first opened the doors to the game room, two people were already inside. Shigeo recognized them as the only two adults present in the killing game, Reigen and Serizawa, if he remembered correctly.

When Suzuki had complained out loud about how the three of them wouldn't be able to have the game room all to themselves, Serizawa began apologizing immediately and got up from where he was sitting, to which Reigen replied by sitting him back down and preaching something about 'taking control over your own life,' a speech that sounded unnervingly familiar. Shigeo couldn't quite understand why, but he had a sense that the two adults were people he could trust.

And that's how they ended up where they are now. The two adults and the Kageyama brothers sitting side by side on the large couch in the corner of the room playing Mario Kart while Suzuki stood behind and watched.

"Whoever's playing Luigi is way ahead of everyone else."

Shigeo lifted his eyes up to peek at the leaderboard for a moment. He noticed he was currently in second place, Ritsu was behind him, and Reigen was behind Ritsu. Serizawa, the only other person that could've been playing Luigi, was ahead of the three of them by an incredible margin.

It was at the very moment that Shigeo noticed this gap that Serizawa crossed the finish line for the third time.

Suzuki raised both his arms in the air. "Woo-hoo! Luigi wins!" Serizawa bashfully rubbed the back of his neck in response.

Suzuki leaned forward from his position behind the couch to get closer to Serizawa's personal bubble. "And here I thought you were just some boring hikikomori, it turns out you're, like, a master at video games!"

Serizawa leans away from Suzuki. "O-oh, it's really nothing special… I've just been playing games for a long time. A lot of experience can help, y'know."

"Serizawa," Reigen spoke up. "You're the Ultimate Gamer, of course it's something special! Take pride in yourself and your abilities!"

Ritsu's eyebrows raised in interest. "You're the Ultimate Gamer?"

"Y-yeah…" Shigeo could practically feel the embarrassment oozing off of Serizawa. It made him feel almost embarrassed himself. Second-hand embarrassment? Is that what that feeling is called? Shigeo couldn't quite remember.

Reigen handed Suzuki the Wii controller. "Do you wanna give it a shot? You didn't get a chance to play since there were only four controllers." Shigeo thought Reigen was only offering Suzuki the controller because he came in last place, but he didn't mention that thought out loud.

Suzuki looked down at the controller, then shifted his eyes toward Serizawa, and then looked back at Reigen.

"I think I'll pass."

-

After about two more rounds of Reigen losing by a landslide and Suzuki laughing at him for it, Reigen decided to find some cards and board games in the back of the room where all five of them could participate. The rest of the day was spent switching between game after game, and before Shigeo knew it, the day was already over with.

Shigeo now found himself sitting on the bed with clean pajama clothes and a towel over his head. Ritsu, just like Shigeo remembered he was doing in the morning, had his nose buried in the small journal he must have found somewhere in the school. Shigeo knew Ritsu liked to keep diaries, so he didn't bother to ask if he could see what Ritsu was writing.

Shigeo, without saying anything, let himself fall into the bed. He dozed off to the sound of Ritsu's writing.

Shigeo dreamt of fraudulent psychics and after-school jobs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BETA READER IF YOU'RE SEEING THIS THEN THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! YOU HAVE SUCH A BIG BRAIN!!  
> I was also so fucking tempted to end the chapter with "he wondered what the minimum wage was" but that would require two sentences and I'm all about that one sentence endings *sunglasses emoji.  
> Keep leaving your beautiful comments and kudos uwu you all make me un poco loco

**Author's Note:**

> what do you do when the satss discord is full of kinnies makin up crossover aus instead of getting shit done? you make a whole ass ao3 account just to post one (1) idea. idk how long this fic will be but I already have like all the major plot points decided  
> uhhhhhh laxe if youre reading this i really did eat a cherry


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